A 7.9 magnitude earthquake just struck the southwest of Indonesia

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In this Monday, Nov. 16, 2015 photo, Mount Sinabung looms above the village of Sukanalu which was abandoned following its eruption, in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

AP Images

A massive and shallow earthquake struck on Wednesday off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a region devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, and there were early reports of deaths.

A tsunami alert was called off, TV said. Neighboring Australia had also issued a tsunami watch for parts of its western coast and then canceled it.

"There are some who have died," said Heronimus Guru, the deputy head of operations with the National Search and Rescue Agency. He did not know how many, but any rescue operation will be hampered by the dark, which falls early in the tropical archipelago.

The epicenter of the earthquake was 502 miles southwest of Padang (which is in the West Sumatra province), the US Geological Survey said. It was six miles deep.

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There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties but the shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage. USGS originally put the magnitude at 8.2, and then 8.1, before lowering it to 7.9.

"So far there have been no reports (of damage) yet," Andi Eka Sakya, an official of the National Meteorological Agency, told TVOne. "In Bengkulu (on southwest coast of Sumatra) they didn't feel it at all." A Medan (the capital of the North Sumatra province) resident also said he didn't feel the quake.

 

Indonesia, especially Aceh, was badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. The 2004 tsunami had a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, and was 19 miles deep. 

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The country straddles the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.